Young women work on projects as part of a ‘Women’s Start-up Weekend’ at Algeria 2.0, an event designed to encourage entrepreneurship. Image: Lindsay Mackenzie/The National

ALGIERS // It was early on a weekend morning, but the teams of women technology entrepreneurs were full of energy as they had coffee and croissants before a morning polishing their business pitches.

Dressed in coloured hijabs or with bare heads, speaking English, French and Arabic, the young women enthused about their plans at the Start-up Weekend Women event.

“It’s a way of encouraging young women into the technology field,” said Yasmine Cherfaoui, 24, a software developer who said that most people on her university course were women. During the day, they worked in teams in the event, on business ideas such as a carpool to alleviate Algiers’ congested traffic . . .